Where journeys break between channels and nobody notices

4 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

Each part of a business tends to work. The website is fine, the phone gets answered, the emails go out, the messaging account is monitored. What frequently does not work is the point where a buyer moves from one to another, because nobody owns the join and nothing reports a failure there.

Somebody reads a page and calls, and whoever answers has no idea what they read. Somebody messages on a social account and is asked to email instead. Somebody submits a form and receives a call from a number they do not recognise. Each of these is a small friction at exactly the point where the buyer was committing, and together they account for a large share of unexplained losses.

1. Where journeys break between channels is at the joins, not within them

The diagnosis.

Every individual channel can be working while the transitions between them fail. Testing channels separately, which is how testing is usually done, misses this entirely. Nobody owns a join, which is why nothing reports its failure.

2. List every transition a buyer makes

The audit.

Search to site, site to phone, phone to email, email to visit, visit to quote, quote to order. Each is a handover and each can fail. Most businesses find six or seven when they write the list down.

3. Watch for context that does not travel

The commonest failure.

The buyer explained their situation on the phone and has to explain it again by email. Every repetition is a signal that nobody is keeping track. Buyers read it as disorganisation rather than as a systems limitation.

4. Do not force a channel change

The friction to remove.

Answering a message by asking somebody to telephone, or a call by asking them to fill in a form, adds a step at the moment of intent. Answer where they contacted you. You can suggest a change of channel; requiring one loses people.

5. Make yourself recognisable across channels

The identification problem.

A call from an unknown number after a web enquiry is frequently not answered. Saying who will call, and from roughly when, resolves it. A line in the acknowledgement is enough.

6. Check that each channel reaches somebody

The basic failure.

An unmonitored inbox or messaging account is a broken join rather than a broken channel. This runs for months because nothing reports it. Test each one from outside monthly.

7. Record enquiries in one place regardless of channel

The structural fix.

One log with a channel field. Separate records per channel guarantee that context does not travel and that your numbers are wrong. It also makes the channel comparison possible.

8. Test the transitions, not just the channels

The method.

Submit a form and then call about it. Message and then email. Follow your own path across a join and see whether anything carries over. Half an hour finds most of the failures.

9. Give the joins an owner

The organisational point.

Somebody responsible for what happens between channels, not only within them. Unowned joins are where things sit, and nobody is at fault because nobody was responsible.

Be careful about consolidating channels to reduce joins. Removing a contact route to simplify your process loses whoever preferred it, and the objective is joins that work rather than fewer ways to reach you.

Conclusion

Test the transitions, because each channel can work while the joins fail.

List every handover a buyer makes between channels, make sure context travels so nobody explains themselves twice, answer people in the channel they used rather than redirecting them, tell them who will make contact and roughly when so an unknown number is expected, confirm every channel actually reaches a person, log all enquiries in one place with a channel field, walk your own path across each join, and give somebody responsibility for the joins themselves.